1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a clinical thermometer, and in particular, an electronic thermometer having a measuring end portion being adhered with a metal head portion having a temperature sensing element and a conductive wire joining the temperature sensing element, with the conductive wire being adhered to the inner wall of the metal head portion such that the conductive wire is not a heat dissipation portion for heat energy surrounding the sensing element, and the conductive wire further acts as a source of heat energy compensation so as to rapidly indicate the accurate temperature, reducing the time required for measuring temperature.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Normally, a conventional electronic clinical thermometer takes a long time to measure body temperature and it was only during 1980-1990, that rapid respond electronic clinical thermometers became utilized. However, a number of expensive components are employed in these thermometers. Recently available electronic clinical thermometers have been able to measure the temperature of a person rapidly, and the size of the thermometer has become small. This is due to the reduction in size with respect to some of the components used in the thermometer. The drawbacks of conventional clinical thermometer are as follows:
Referring to FIG. 1, there is shown a conventional clinical thermometer comprising a body 10, a measuring end 21 connecting the body 10, a metal head portion 22 provided at the end portion of the measuring end 21, and the body 10 comprises a display element 13 and a press button switch 14. As shown in FIG. 2, a conventional clinical thermometer having a metal head portion 22 contains a thermistor 23 which is connected to a conductive wire 25.
As shown in FIG. 3, a major part of the heat energy is lost to form a heat stream 32. Due to the large capacity of metal head 22, it takes about 60-90 seconds to reach equilibrium.
The above conventional clinical thermometer has the drawback of large heat capacity.
FIG. 4 shows a conventional clinical thermometer which has been granted as U.S. Pat. No. 4,183,248. The interior of the measuring end has a heating element 48.
FIG. 5 shows the loss of heat energy from the measuring end portion to form heat stream 52 and 53. Due to the fact that the heat stream is reduced and therefore heat equilibrium can be obtained easily, the measuring time is shorter by 4 to 15 seconds.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,632,555 discloses a clinical thermometer having a microprocessor to predict the measuring result by way of predictive algorithm. The required time for measuring is 4 to 15 seconds.
PCT WO00/22396 discloses a rapid measuring of a clinical thermometer. As shown in FIG. 6, the thermometer comprises a body 61 having a measuring end 62, a metal head portion 63 and a sensing element 64 within the metal head 63.
The conventional clinical thermometers with patents mentioned above focus on reducing the media within the metal head portion and the metal head portion without considering the influence of the conductive wire on the heat equilibrium. Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to mitigate the above drawbacks by providing a rapid respond electronic clinical thermometer.